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Cueing from Position or from Process

Cueing from Position or from Process

Janet
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  • A) Try this: Stand in Parallel 1st, then roll down to All-4s with hands under shoulders, knees under hips. Simple enough. Now repeat this with more awareness of how you feel in your body. These are positional cues. Simple, effective, and….(keep reading….)
  • B) Now try this: Stand with your feet orienting forward, thighs with a micro-inward spiralling, and a slight widening across the back of your pelvis. Then roll down to a quadruped stance by finding a slight external spiraling of your upper arms so that you feel width across the front of your collarbones to match the width across your shoulder blades. Stretch one leg back, spiralling it slightly inward on a micro level then land your knee down in line with your hip socket. Find this same orientation with your other leg. How do you feel? These are process oriented cues. More complex, more effective, and…

Did exploration B feel different from A, and if so how? While I use both types of cuing, I feel and sense a marked difference between the two. Positional cues are shorthand, quick reminders, and assist in maintaining the overall flow of movement. However, in terms of embodiment, positional cues can lead to a static ‘hold’ of an orientation and often can feel as though the position is external, placed upon the mover rather than the mover creating it from the inside. This can lead to tension-holding patterns, and a decrease in conscious embodiment. In the extreme, it can lead to a lessening of autonomy in movement, if the mover feels he/she have to achieve a certain ‘standard’.

Process-oriented cues help to create a conscious intention in the mover in manifesting an orientation. These cues allow more time and space for the mover to feel internal movements of fascia, nerves, muscles, vessels, cells, and so forth so that the mover can seek ease and flow from the internal rhythms of his/her body. This allows an important continuity of inner rhythms matching and blending with outer movement flows. This facilitates autonomy in movement and a deeper level of embodiment.

As a somatic movement educator/therapist, I am always making deliberate choices about how I guide movement. Sometimes shorthand cues are gentle reminders of the more detailed process cues that you and I explored previously. If the positional cues lead to tension, then we delve into deeper processes to assist you in finding joy and pleasure in movement. Both types of cues are valid. Explore in your own movement what provides you with greatest ease and stay open in both.

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